Thats so true! It's not like I wasnt begging for it at all, but at least me and the Avatar get random name drops in discussions we aren't even involved in. They're almost an in-joke, and I'm practicaly a forum feature rather than a member... Not that I wasn't a big pain in the ass a few times, but still...

Guys, I'm just going to put this out there: if you really want a shout-out from the developers, the best way to do it would be to draw up some fan-art of the forum regulars as DD characters and submit it to the devs in the hopes of getting featured in a news post. If you did a good job I'd say your chances of getting featured are better than even, which is a big jump from the close-to-zero chance you'd get just by discussing the possibility of shout-outs.

The Avatar wrote:Unfortunately, I happen to be totally hopeless with art. How I wish they could sell more exclusive editions...

I know this will sound really stupid, but I think it has to be said: have you really made an honest effort to try?

I considered myself a hopeless artist at a time, but one night I resolved to just sit down and make a genuine attempt whatever my shortcomings. With practice, my occasional sketches have reached a stage of general competency. I think all too many people give up at different things - art, math, speaking, music, and writing in particular - just because of preconceptions about the skill of others and themselves. These things come easy to some people, but you shouldn't let that intimidate you into not even trying.

Or really, any other contribution. There's a few games out there with references to me based on things ranging from having done balance testing for the company, suggesting the likely source of a really annoying bug, lore snippets I wrote up, or just being a generally useful forum member. Lots of companies show thanks for free work done on their behalf without request for compensation with in-game references (even if sometimes they're subtle enough most people never notice them, the intended person usually always does.)

Wargasm this IS the basis we are trying to mooch a reference off. If you count the hours that went into testing this thing, the word count related to the game (I may have overdone that bit by a few hundred thousand, but who's counting) and the fact that were more than willing to buy (and allready have) more than one copy for friends and neighbours... Hell, I had to dodge my wife to make videos, noone was making me do it, but still, those things alone took hours of my life.

If everyone with kids devoted this much time and effort in their entire lives to raising them the world would be a better place.

Hell, at one point, a colleague of mine was watching me type up an analysis of something (they were read among a few friends as sort of a random blog), and when I turned to look at him and ask him why looked puzzled his reply was: "Why don't these guys just give you a job?". Now, since I can figure out several answers to that question, and since I can even figure out several answers to "can I has a reference puhleeeze for all the life I spent testing and debating about your game?" I'm sort of just asking for a chip on a tombstone or memorial or even dungeon wall in the memory of my time, effort and such and such.

I mean, I'm not likeable, sometimes I wasn't even barely tolerable and I can figure out that dev's see me more as a bloody nuisance or a part of awfull hardships of the years of neverending develoment of that one seemingly simple game then someone they'd ever in any way feel indebted to... But all the people who've been involved in my testing of the game IRL, and all the people who I could've devoted my time to came to accept that I really love, care about, want to understand and put an effort into testing and developing this game. I'll quote my wife: "So, a random Joe who just sent them a small check gets an ingame mention, and you who've worked your arse off don't, what gives?". I explained that the devs needed money and all that, but her reply kind of stuck with me: "Tell you what, next time a bunch of guys come up with something good, just send them a check and don't even bother participating..."

No need to answer this anyone, I wont rant again soon (wasn't worked up this time, I don't have an actual agenda here) and any decision's as far as I'm concerned. As for possible mentioning me in game by (nick)name after all, other people have had plenty of suggestions.

...Eep? I was just offering general advice to anyone wanting a reference in any game. I wasn't saying to anyone "you suck and don't contribute so don't ask for anything", which is what you seem to be replying to even though no one said that. :p